Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan.
A fascinating true story of heroism and intrigue by a young man, Pino Lella, in Milan and along the Swiss border during WWII. The risks and dangers this young man faced to save others is a remarkable testament to the untold sacrifices made by ordinary citizens to undermine Nazi power and control. — Gail Partin, Law Library Director

Invisible Influence : The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, by Jonah Berger.
If you think that you are not easily influenced by other people, you are wrong and Jonah Berger can explain why. In fact, refusing to do something because others are doing it, is a powerful form of influence that we often fail to recognize. From what you order in a restaurant to how hurricanes can influence baby names, to why things become popular, you will be shocked to find out how powerful invisible influences can be. Do you want to learn how to be a better negotiator or how to make more money in tips? Then I highly recommend you read Invisible Influence to learn both how you are being influenced by others and how you can learn to be influential in your work and life. — Laura Ax-Fultz, Associate Law Librarian and Assistant Director

The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
I’m currently reading The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. My husband read it a few years ago and recommended it to me. Commonly accepted as a modern classic, this novel was written in 1943 and tells the story of two architects who display very different characteristics. I’ve only just started reading it, so I have much more to discover! According to an Amazon.com review, The Fountainhead is “the revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand’s groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim.” — Heather Shumaker, Acquisitions & Budget Specialist

Lamentation, by C.J. Sansom
I enjoy historical mysteries and anything about Tudor England, so the C.J. Sansom novels have been great reads. The series occurs throughout the reign of King Henry VIII. The main character is a lawyer, Matthew Shardlake, who is commissioned over the years by Cromwell, Cranmer, and Queen Catherine Parr to investigate crimes and murders. Lamentation takes place at the end of Henry’s reign, when power struggles over succession and religion are just a small part of the mayhem of court life. I’m really enjoying this series! — Susie Zullinger, Technical Services & Government Documents Manager

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange should be shelved alongside 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. It follows Alex, the protagonist, through a ubiquitous cityscape where hooliganism, violent crime, drug use, and a curious slang dialect corrupt and define the youth. Alex fights, robs, and ravishes his way through this teenage wasteland until, upon his capture and imprisonment, he faces a medical treatment that removes his capacity to do bad, but destroys his power of choice. Deprived of basic human agency, is Alex a man at all, or merely a tool that others will use to accomplish their devious ends?
Such a philosophically charged novel, which contemplates fundamental questions of authority, free will, and the nature of man, is done a disservice by the ending in the original U.S. release. But the ending differs between editions; read the one that the author intended. It corrects the flaw in the U.S. release (which Stanley Kubrick repeated in his film adaptation) of leaning on nihilism, the classic cop-out of reaching a more salient point. — Sean Kraus, Student Assistant, J.D. Candidate — Class of 2019

The Law Library has prepared a guide, Suggested Reading for Law School, which lists selected publications that provide an introduction to the law school experience and beyond: preparing for the intensity of the first year, discovering and honing the skills needed to find success as a law student, and balancing life with studies. Sections included are:

Preparing for Law School

Taking Law School Exams

Legal Writing & Skills

Legal Education

Blogs

Take a moment to browse through the guide to find your next reading material before the Fall semester begins!

Here are a few of the new materials the Law Library has acquired this summer. Please stop by and browse the New Books display for more interesting titles!

Legal Ethics and Social Media : A Practitioner’s Handbook by Jan L. Jacobowitz, John G. Browning
Call Number: KF390.5.C6J33 2017
While technology positively impacts the legal profession and improves workflows, a lawyer must also master social media skills and know that all existing rules of ethics still apply while navigating the brave new world of status updates, tweets, Instagram followers, and YouTube uploads. Written to assist lawyers navigate the often slippery slope of digital communication such as Twitter, Facebook, and more, this pertinent book offers necessary guidance for one’s ethical responsibilities in social media.

Effectively Staffing Your Law Firm by Jennifer J. Rose (Ed.)
Call Number: KF318.E34 2017
There are a lot of things you don’t learn in law school—how to staff your law firm is one of them. This book provides everything you need to know about hiring (and firing) employees straight from the mouths of the experts. If you own your own firm, this book is a must-have for your firm’s future success.

Chief Crisis Officer : Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response by James F. Haggerty
Call Number: HD49.H34 2017
An organization’s crisis response involves public communications response: ensuring the general public, media, employees and other stakeholders understand (1) what has happened, and (2) what the organization is doing about it. Chief Crisis Officer explains why every company and organization needs to identify a CCO, who will take the lead in preparing the organization for crisis communications response, and responding effectively when the inevitable crisis hits. Using a mixture of real life examples, strategies, and tactics, the book breaks down various forms of crises into their component parts and provides both a strategic approach and the proper tools to enable the Chief Crisis Officer to assemble his or her team, and respond–effectively and efficiently–when the crisis occurs.

Environmental Information : Research, Access & Environmental Decisionmaking by Sarah Lamdan
Call number: GE30.L36 2017
In an ideal world, environmental information would be easy to find and use. But the current state of environmental information access requires additional knowledge and expertise — the kind that this book provides. Designed for legal practitioners, librarians, journalists, advocates, students, and researchers, this book helps environmental information seekers locate, obtain, and make sense of environmental records, documents, and pieces of data. It contains tips and concepts that expand beyond legal research or general research and into the broader realm of information-gathering. The book discusses environmental research tactics and resources and it also covers methods for obtaining information from nontraditional sources like government offices and open meetings.

A Tragic Fate : Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art by Nicholas M. O’Donnell
Call Number: K5219.O36 2017
The organized theft of fine art by Nazi Germany has captivated worldwide attention in the last twenty years. As much as any other topic arising out of World War Two, stolen art has proven to be an issue that simply will not go away. Newly found works of art pit survivors and their heirs against museums, foreign nations, and even their own family members. These stories are enduring because they speak to one of the core tragedies of the Nazi era: how a nation at the pinnacle of fine art and culture spawned a legalized culture of theft and plunder. A Tragic Fate is the first book to seriously address the legal and ethical rules that have dictated the results of restitution claims between competing claimants to the same works of art. It provides a history of Art and Culture in German-occupied Europe, an introduction to the most significant collections in Europe to be targeted by the Nazis, and a narrative of the efforts to reclaim looted artwork in the decades following the Holocaust through profiles of some of the art world’s most famous and influential restitution cases.

Tom Bouman has returned with his second novel, Fateful Mornings. Released in June, 2017, Bouman’s newest book continues with Officer Henry Farrell policing the small Pennsylvania town, Wild Thyme, where modern-day crime and drug trafficking mixes with back country wooded areas and shady characters. Written in rural noir style, Bouman infuses his stories with a haunting literary quality that combines subtlety with suspense to create the series’ atmosphere.

Bouman’s first book, Dry Bones in the Valley, won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and a Los Angeles Time Book Prize. He is a 2017 graduate of Dickinson Law.

Fateful Mornings and Dry Bones in the Valley are available to check out at the Law Library.

Information on summer access to Lexis, Bloomberg Law, and Westlaw for members of the Classes of 2018 & 2019:

LEXIS has no restrictions on use over the summer, and you do not have to do anything to extend your password.

BLOOMBERG LAW has no restrictions on use over the summer, and you do not have to do anything to extend your password.

WESTLAW requires that you extend your password for the summer to have full access to Westlaw. If you don’t extend your password, you will only have access to Westlaw for 10 hours in June and 10 hours in July.

WESTLAW Summer password extension is available only if a student has a permissible academic use for the password this summer (a summer associate position is not considered a permissible use). Permissible uses include:

Summer classes / study abroad

Law review and journal

Moot court

Research assistant positions

Unpaid internships / externships — for which you will receive class credit

Access for the Class of 2017 (May Graduates):

LEXIS provides full access to students graduating in May 2017 for six months through the Lexis Law School Graduate Program. Graduates working for a public interest organization may sign up for the Lexis ASPIRE Program, which permits job-related access to Lexis Advance for the duration of the public interest work.

BLOOMBERG LAW allows access to graduating students for six months after graduation. You do not need to do anything to extend your access.

WESTLAW allows graduating students to extend access while studying for the bar by registering for its Grad Program. Registered May graduates will retain access to Westlaw for a limited number of hours through November. Graduates will also retain access to a number of career-related databases for 18 months following graduation.

Libraries are using innovative ideas to attract users, and are pursuing areas of service where they can be essential to people in the age of ever-accelerating social media. One such idea is the Human Library. Its key concept: avoid making judgments based solely on appearances. The Human Library idea was started in 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has spread to over 70 countries. The goal is to open conversations between diverse people in a safe environment, to learn about their culture and lives in a non-judgmental or threatening way. The “books” are volunteers who come from all walks of life, ages, genders, lifestyle choices, and are willing to share their life experiences with others in face-to-face or group conversations.

In a recent Penn State University Libraries’ Human Library event, synopses of the participants were posted well in advance of the event day and interested borrowers could read information and sign up to check out the human books. Individuals were pulled from the entire University population of faculty, staff and students. The Paterno library and classrooms housed the “checked out” books and readers for group conversations running 45 minutes in length during the afternoon. That evening, there was a panel of “Bestsellers” and discussions with several of the human books. This panel was live streamed to students, faculty and staff. The Libraries’ Human Library event enhances the University’s All Indiversity and inclusion initiative.

For further information, there are several Human Library websites to visit for more information. Some give a brief hint of books in that collection and organizing an event. Others include an invitation for you to share your life experiences and be part of the Human Library. Some sites to explore are Human Library UK, Human Library Chicago, and The Williams College Human Library Project for a variety of collections.

Alternative facts, fake news, false tweets — we are bombarded by news stories from every direction. Many stories sound credible. How can we discern what to believe and what to toss into our trash bin? Fake news stories are intentionally fabricated and distorted news stories. Fake news should not be confused with satire, bias coverage, rumor mill, and junk science. Below are listed some sources to begin checking when there are doubts on the reliability and facts of headlines and other stories shared through the Internet or published in print.

But first, some simple guidelines for spotting fake news are:

Currency: Is the information recent?Relevancy: Is it an original story or has it been published elsewhere?Authority: Are there references or sources provided? Is the author an authority on the subject?Purpose: Why was the article written and who is the intended audience? Is it opinion, first-hand account or researched article?

There are websites to help us identify fake news. For fact checking on urban legends, websites and stories, there a few reliable sources:

Snopes is a well-established and reliable website focuses on urban legends, new stories and memes;

Politifact is the Pulitzer Prize-winning site that researches claims of politicians and checks their accuracy;

Fact check is from the well-known Annenberg Public Policy Center and is useful for checking on political claims;

Hoax-Slayer zeros in on email hoaxes, identifies theft scams and spam, and is good for researching article authors and other people; and,

For more political fact-checking sites for investigating corporate influences and governmental propaganda, The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a non-profit investigative reporting group. To maintain its impartiality, the CMD does not accept contributions from for-profit corporations or grants from the government. Publications of this organization include PRWatch and The SPIN, an e-periodical. SourceWatch specializes in a collaborative encyclopedia of people, groups and issues that are shaping the public agenda.

Penn State’s University Libraries recently published a guide to fake news that covers a spectrum of identifying fake news, why we should care care about fakes news, fact checking and news literacy. This guide lists credible news sources and information on how to choose your news, and includes information about using social media to share news.

The Law Library has created a research guide on bar examination resources, highlighting important information and services for Dickinson Law students as they prepare to take the bar examination in Pennsylvania or elsewhere. The guide compiles resources on bar admission rules, application info, bar exam components, contact details, and more. Publications, in print and online, are available to help prepare an effective exam strategy.

Julia A. Radle, Class of 1899, was the first female student to attend and graduate from The Dickinson School of Law. Born March 15, 1876, Radle was raised in Georgetown (now Dalmatia), Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. She attended Soldiers’ Orphan Schools in Mt. Joy and Chester Springs, PA, until 1892. She began classes at Millersville Normal School, and graduated with her teaching degree in 1894 from Shippensburg Normal School (now Shippensburg University). Radle then attended Shoemaker’s National School of Elocution and Oratory in Philadelphia (1897).

Citing her motivation to go into law as her interest in public speaking and also the influence and encouragement of her brother, Philip, Class of 1898, Radle entered The Dickinson School of Law in 1897. The November 1897 issue of The Forum marks the first mention of Radle:

“The Junior Class boasts of one co-ed this year in the person of Miss Julia Radle, of Georgetown, Pa. Miss Radle has received a hearty welcome to the school, and we trust her association with us may prove to be most pleasant and profitable.”

During her first year, she was elected secretary of her class and vice president of the Dickinson Law Society. Her Middler year she served as an editor of The Forum, possibly making her the first female law review editor in the United States. Radle also was elected class historian when the position became vacant due to resignation. She often performed the role of elocutionist for the Law School; one such occasion was reported in the March 1898 Forum:

“On the evening of Tuesday, March 15th, the Class of ’98 of the Law School was delightfully entertained by President and Mrs. Geo. Edward Reed at their residence on West High St. On this occasion the reputation of the host and hostess for hospitality was fully maintained, if not surpassed. Quite the number of young ladies from the town and college, by their presence, made the occasion all the more enjoyable. The company was most pleasantly entertained during the evening by Miss Radle, of the Law School, with several of her recitations and by Dr. and Mrs. Reed and Mr. Hugh Miller with their singing. Mr. Morgan led the singing of college songs and melodies.”

Commencement ceremonies were held June 6, 1899, with a class of thirty-nine students. Her graduating thesis was titled “Privileged Communications Between Attorneys and Clients”.

She was admitted in 1900 to the Northumberland County Bar. In 1903, Radle married Daniel A. Kline, who was superintendent of schools in Perry County from 1908 to 1944. She practiced for two years in Shamokin with her brother, Philip, until his death in 1909. She then left the field of law to return to teaching, which she preferred. She and her husband resided in New Bloomfield, and had three daughters: Sarah, Margaret, and Carolyn. Julia Radle Kline passed away on October 15, 1970, at the age of 94.

The theme for Women’s History Month 2017 is “Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business.” The National Women’s History Project Gazette highlights the women who are being honored this year for their lifelong contributions that improve the lives of all women, sometimes achieved through legal action.

Similarly, the American Bar Association has compiled a list of trailblazing women of the legal profession. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that most of the legal and political gains made by women toward equality were made in the twentieth century – no so long ago. Although this year marks the centennial of the swearing-in of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to become a member of Congress, the political arena remains particularly challenging for women. In honor of Women’s History Month, the United States National Archives convened a panel of cross-generational, bipartisan, former Congresswomen to discuss their work in public service. [Note: actual presentation begins at 3:26.] One panelist notes that her interest to run for office stemmed from her desire to actively work toward changing the law, not just enforcing the existing law. This desire to act in the public good was complicated merely due to their gender – a situation faced by many women.

The documented legal challenges women face forms substantial body of scholarly work that HeinOnline has compiled into a database called Women and the Law (Peggy). “[Peggy] is a collection that brings together books, biographies and periodicals dedicated to the role of women in society and the law. This unique collection of materials provides a convenient platform for users to research the progression of women’s roles and rights in society over the past 200 years. Also included are more than 70 titles from Emory University Law School’s Feminism and Legal Theory Project which provide a platform to view the effect of law and culture on the female gender.”

The Women’s Studies International database pulls together over 232,000 records from ten separate databases and will be useful for researchers seeking a broader scholarly perspective on women’s history and rights.

For a more general resource on American Women’s history, see Click. “This resource highlights the collective action and individual achievements of women from the 1940s to the present. In the spirit of 1970s consciousness-raising, the name refers to the “click” moment when women discovered the powerful ideas of modern feminism.”